Pulling Teeth
by PreciousRoy
Summary: Kai has to have his wisdom teeth taken out. Rei drives him and has to deal with him loopy off the anesthetic on the way home. And it leads to some interesting revelations. (KaixRei oneshot)


Just a silly one shot inspired by... myself. I am currently at home, in pain after getting my own wisdom teeth pulled out. It's cathartic to make a fictional character also suffer lol.

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Pulling Teeth

There was silence in the car.

In between looking at the road, Rei kept making glances in the rear view mirror at his friend sitting next to him in the passenger seat.

Next to him was Kai Hiwatari, sat in his usual pose. Arms folded, head down, eyes closed.

But today there was something slightly different about it.

Today, he actually came off a little...nervous. Maybe it was that his body seemed to be a lot tenser than normal. Or that his hands seemed to be clutching on to the opposite arms a lot tighter than usual.

"You OK?" Rei asked with a small smile.

"I'm fine." Kai barked quickly, annoyed.

Rei's smile grew a little and he shook his head.

They were on their way to the hospital.

Several months ago, it became apparent that Kai's wisdom teeth were giving him trouble.

Although he hadn't said anything, Rei noticed he had difficulty eating sometimes or caught him making a pained face when he bit down. He'd seen him rubbing the side of his jaw at times, too. He'd put two and two together, and got on his case relentlessly until the stoic Russian caved and agreed to go to the dentist.

He got an x-ray, and lo and behold, all four of his wisdom teeth were impacted. Which meant one thing.

They all had to come out.

Kai could without a doubt be described as brave, tough and fearless. He could intimidate almost anyone with his cold, hard glare. He could blade against the toughest opponent in front of a world audience and not break a sweat.

But Rei got a sneaking suspicion after the dentist that people in white coats turned him in to scared little boy.

Since Kai wouldn't be able to drive himself after the anaesthesia, Rei had offered to go with him. He could drive him home and whether he wanted it or not, he could be there for some emotional support.

They arrived and sat together in the waiting area. Rei sat patiently while Kai sat getting visibly irritated at the clipboard as he filled out some forms.

"So stupid...what does that have to do with teeth..." he grumbled under his breath as he circled roughly with the pen.

He finished filling out the form and sat with the clipboard on his lap, waiting to be called in.

Rei was reading some magazine that was next to him on the chairs. He smirked again when he heard a rapid and continuous _tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap..._

Kai was tapping the pen on the clipboard, eyes fixed on the clock ticking away the seconds.

Rei put his magazine down and leaned over to him. Speaking quietly so the other people waiting didn't hear.

"You don't need to be nervous, Kai. It'll be all over before you even know it."

Kai flinched and scowled.

"Me? Nervous? Please..." he huffed defensively.

Rei rolled his eyes.

"Sorry, my bad." he smirked again, "It's just I read up a little about removing impacted wisdom teeth and I know _I'd_ be a little uneasy...they slice your gums open, expose the bone, shove a drill in and break the teeth in to little pieces before they start yanking to get the-"

"I know what they do!" Kai interrupted quickly, looking a little whiter than usual.

Was that a little bead of sweat Rei could see?

A doctor came in to the waiting area.

"Mr. Hiwatari? We're ready for you now."

Rei felt him freeze. Poor thing. The pen tapping and freezing up seemed like Kai's equivalent of bursting in to tears and screaming.

Rei patted him on the shoulder before leaning in again.

"It'll be fine. I promise. I'll be here when you wake up to take you home. You won't even know it happened."

Kai turned his eyes to him. This time it wasn't an annoyed look, it was a grateful one.

He got up without a word and followed the doctor. Leaving Rei alone.

A few hours later, a plump, cheery, middle-aged nurse came and found him.

"Your friend has come to. He's a little spaced out, we just need to wait on the discharge papers."

A cheeky grin appeared on Rei's face.

"Can I see him now?" he asked. He couldn't picture Kai loopy on anaesthetic. It was definitely something he wanted to see.

"Of course, right this way."

Rei was lead to a small recovery room. Kai was propped up on a bed. He looked horrible.

His eyes were closed, his mouth was stuffed with gauze, his face white, blood had dripped down his face on to his shirt. He looked like something out of a zombie movie.

The nurse gently wiped the blood off his face with a wet tissue.

"Your friend is here, honey." she said to him softly, giving him a gently shake.

He slowly opened his eyes, they looked wide and bleary. He looked really confused. He met the nurse's eyes.

"Did I meet you in Italy...? You owe me money..." he muffled out. His mouth was stuffed with gauze, but he was just about understandable.

Rei snorted and giggled.

"I don't think we did, sweetie." she smiled as she played along. "Your friend is here. He can take you home real soon. Just wait for the papers, OK?"

Rei moved round beside the nurse and hunched down to meet his eyes.

"Hi, Kai. You feeling OK?"

Kai looked like his eyes were struggling to focus on him. Suddenly it clicked who he was and he smiled, flashing his gauze filled mouth. Rei had never seen him look so happy.

"Reiiiii! I didn't know you lived here..."

"I don't. I've come to take you home."

"Don't I live here?" he asked, confused.

"...No, Kai. You don't." he laughed. Wow...he was as high as a kite. This would be fun.

The doctor came in after a short while with the discharge papers and some information on aftercare. Rei listened and took them. They brought in a wheelchair and it was time to go home.

As he wheeled his friend down the corridors and out to the parking lot, he continued to babble nonsense. Rei was debating in his head whether or not to video it.

"If the sky was green I think I'd be muuuuuch happier..." he announced contently as his head rolled back and his glazed eyes looked at the sky.

"Oh yeh? Why's that?" Rei played along, actually really enjoying listening to his usually quiet, serious, moody captain jabber away.

"Because the sky would be _green_ , man!" he said before he started chuckling hysterically, like it was the funniest thing in the world.

Rei couldn't help but laugh along. He'd never seen Kai laugh hysterically before.

He wheeled the disorientated patient to the passenger seat of the car and opened the door.

"OK, let's get you in, buddy."

Kai held his arms out like a child wanting to be picked up. Still giggling.

"Really?" Rei laughed in response, before leaning down and heaving him up, turning around and placing him in the seat.

"There ya go...now, let's get you strapped in..." he said as he took Kai's seatbelt and pulled it over him.

His face was reasonably close to his. He found Kai staring at him lovingly.

"You're sooooooo prettttty..." he smiled, his eyes shined with adoration.

Rei let out a small laugh, but felt his cheeks prickle as they flushed.

He quickly shut the door, still blushing, and made his way to the drivers seat.

"OK, let's get you home...I really hope for your sake Tyson isn't around..."

"Aw, I like Tyson..."

Rei spat out the air in his throat in shock and turned to him. How delirious must he be to say something like _that_?

"Oh, you do?"

"Yeh. He's a really good guy. Just stuuuupid..."

Rei laughed. He decided to take advantage of the situation. Usually getting him to talk about how he felt about anything or anyone was like...well...pulling teeth, ironically.

"What about Max?"

Kai started giggling again, "He's like a...teddy...puppy...thing. He's nice. I like him, too. He's always so happy..."

"and Kenny?"

The giggling continued, "He's a nice guy, too...heh...he's just..." the giggling was getting in the way of the words. "he's just such a _NERD_." he burst out laughing hysterically again.

The laughter was infectious. He really wish he'd videoed all this.

"He has his little computer..." Kai struggled to continue through laughing, "he's gonna marry the internet and have little internet _babies_!"

Rei also laughed at how funny Kai was finding it. He let him laugh it out and eventually calmed down.

"So, what about me?" he asked curiously.

"What about you?"

"Well, you told me about Tyson, Max and Kenny...so what about me?"

"Ohhhhhh..." Kai caught on, his head rolled back against the chair.

"Oh god, Rei, I love you..." he sighed out dramatically.

"What!?" Rei laughed out.

"Yeh, you're my favorite person in the world. You're so perfect. I was really sad until I met you. And then you came and suddenly I didn't feel as bad any more. Now if we go anywhere I always really hope we get roomed together."

Rei was quiet. He knew he was off his ass right now, but was there truth to that?

Kai rolled his head to look at Rei.

"Can we make out sometime?"

"What!?" Rei spluttered out again.

"Can we make out sometime?" he repeated as if he were asking something ordinary, like what the time was.

"Uh...I think we'd better wait until your mouth heals up a bit, huh?"

"Yehhhh...I think they stole my tongue anyway..."

"They didn't take your tongue, Kai."

"You sure?"

"Positive."

"OK..."

And just like that the conversation was over.

They finally arrived home. Rei helped Kai out the car and took his arm, putting it around his shoulders to steady him and brought him in to the house.

He listened nervously for the others. Kai would die if they saw him like this. Luckily, they all seemed to be outside.

He picked Kai up bridal style and took him upstairs to their shared room.

"Wow...you're really strong..." Kai giggled.

"Yep, that's right...now let's get you in to bed..."

He placed Kai on his bed, propping his pillows up and adding the pillows from his own bed so he was slightly upright.

"Should maybe take that gauze out, too...don't want you choking on it...open up..." he instructed. Kai opened his mouth, not taking his eyes off him.

Rei smiled at him softly as he reached in gently to take out the blood soaked gauze and wrapping it in tissue.

"There we go...now you should try and go to sleep..."

He began to stand back up, but Kai grabbed his arm.

"Can you stay?" he pleaded, his voice clearer now the gauze was out.

"Uh...yeh, sure. I guess I can."

He sat back next to Kai, propping himself up against the headboard, too.

"Hey, Rei?"

"Yeh?"

"Do you speak Chinese?"

"Yes, of course I do..."

"Oh...Do I speak Chinese?"

Rei cracked a smile.

"I don't think so."

Kai let out a big sigh, Rei turned to him.

"Then _how_ are our kids gonna understand us?" he asked in a genuinely concerned voice.

Rei let out another snort.

"How about we speak English to them?"

"Ohhh, that could work!"

They went quiet. After a good few minutes, Rei looked over. Kai was out for the count. He gently got off the bed, put a blanket over him and left him to sleep.

The next morning, Kai woke up with a horrible pain on either side of his jaw. He winced and sat up, bringing his hand to his jaw and touching it. It was tender and swollen.

He looked around. He was in his own bed? How had he gotten here? Last thing he remembered was the doctor telling him to count back from ten.

The bedroom door opened and Rei walked in.

"Ah, you're awake...Morning..."

"Hn..." he replied, he didn't feel like talking.

Rei smiled sympathetically.

"Does it hurt?"

Kai nodded.

Rei held out an ice pack. "Here. Use this before you start to look like an angry chipmunk."

Kai scowled with a smirk and took it, holding it to his swelling cheek.

"I don't remember anything..." he forced out.

"It's probably better that you don't..." Rei smirked slyly.

Kai's face fell and looked up at him.

"Why!?" he asked, dreading what he might have said or done. He couldn't remember a thing.

"That's for me to know..." he said playfully, his smirk growing.

Kai was about to argue and demand he told him, but Rei stopped him.

"You should really try to eat something. So your _favorite_ person here is going to make you some soup..." he said as he turned and head out the room.

Kai frowned and found himself blushing, he felt panicked. What was that about? What the hell did he do?!

Rei went downstairs feeling smug.

He'd tell him eventually, and he decided he would finally tell him he'd felt the same way. But for now, he was going to mess with him a bit. It would be a waste if he didn't.

END

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Writing this cheered me up. Hope you enjoyed it! Any comments would really be appreciated!


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